VII 

 VARIETY IN TREES 



On the small lot the question of the tree is a peculiar one. 

 No oak may spread its great arms here, no beech increase its 

 silvery girth from year to year. Soil is too precious, sun too 

 vital; but trees must not be lacking, for beauty, for use. And 

 therefore the fruit tree is p>erhaps the proper subject for the 

 town or suburban garden. Will not one fine apple tree create a 

 picture, too, no matter where it stands? And will not a little 

 plum or peach wreathe a bit of garden with spring flowers as 

 well as yield the wished-for harvest of fruit? 



Trees for the little garden? Where is there room for trees in 

 the average small space, the possession of most of us? To this 

 let the reply be made, first, that no piece of ground is furnished 

 completely without at least one tree : a tree for rising line and 

 falling shadow; a tree for winter interest as well as for summer 

 coolness and beauty; a tree as a centre perhaps for the plan of 

 the little garden, as a lodging for the fowls of the air, as a place 

 of joy for children, who climb and build among its branches as 

 naturally as ever Mowgli played in his tropic jungle. Alas for 

 every child in America who has missed the two pleasures, of 

 reading The Sioiss Family Robinson in words of one syllable, 

 and then of building a house in a tree! 



If, however, the choice is restricted by reason of space to one 

 tree, let that tree, say I, be the elm. The elm — where else is 

 there at once such beauty of form, the vase-shaped elm, the 

 fan-shaped elm — such towering height, such grace of hanging 

 leaves, such loveliness of gold in autumn? The maple is stodgy 

 beside it. The maple calls for overmuch room also, though I 



